Bioshock - Ken Levine Interview @ MTV

Levine says he thought shooter games needed a similar kick. The genre had progressed surely but slowly, and he wanted "BioShock" to lurch things forward. Conventional shorts had linear layouts. A player could map them, he said, by "unrolling a ball of string." He wanted to build Rapture as a city to explore in any direction, to wander in and crisscross. Typical shooters locked players in a room for shootouts with level-ending boss characters. The "BioShock" Big Daddies will roam, and the player hunts the bosses and picks the fight. "You decide where [the fight] happens," he said. "You set up the ambush. It&#39;s a tough fight. … These are bosses that just live in the world. You determine the rules of engagement." He says there&#39;s more.

These guys deserve a break, they are trying to keep focus on creativity and inovation which has been the benchmark of PC games (for the most part).
He is trying to steer development and clearly is a people person whom can do one on ones, not only that his interviews tend to always be fresh since he isn't following a scripted PR pablum and you can't neglect a huge audience block.

Some people can, others can't and he can.

— Trust me, most of the names I have been called you can't translate in any language…they're not even real words as much as a succession of violent images.